Congratulations to Washington University transplant nephrologist Anuja Java, MD, who was recently elected as Secretary of the Women in Nephrology (WIN) organization for 2024-2036. WIN, founded in 1983, promotes professional development, mentorship, and education for women and men in nephrology.
Java has extensive experience in the WIN organization. In 2022, she was elected to the WIN Executive Council as a Councilor Three. As part of the WIN leadership team, she has worked to promote a culture that fuels innovation and fosters an inclusive community for women. In her words, she wants to “take the work out of networking” so that women do not feel pressured about the need to do something. Instead, she strives to create an environment where women get to know each other and share experiences, which can be a real game changer. (See more here.)
In 2023, Java, led a WIN-sponsored discussion, Fellows’ Corner – Should I Subspecialize, an inaugural event that allowed attendees to connect with women faculty who shared their experiences about specializing and becoming experts in their medical fields.
“My work at WIN is very close to my heart and I am looking forward to continuing our initiatives for our trainees and advocacy to improve opportunities and promote equity for women in Nephrology.”
Anuja Java, MD, Associate Professor of Medicine, WashU Nephrology, and Director of the Kidney Transplant John Cochran VA Medical Center.
In addition to her accomplishments at WIN, Java has been appointed to the Veterans Affairs Kidney Medicine Field Advisory Board where she heads a kidney transplant subcommittee tasked with improving coordination of care and reporting quality of care for Veterans receiving maintenance dialysis in our community. Java also currently co-chairs the NIH-funded Clinical Genome Resource (ClinGen) Complement Gene Curation Expert Panel (GCEP).
Java is a renowned physician-scientist and an expert in rare complement diseases and their involvement in kidney damage, including thrombotic microangiopathies such as atypical hemolytic uremic syndrome (aHUS) as well as in C3 glomerulopathy and age-related macular degeneration. She is a recent recipient of a Clinical and Translational Research Funding Program (CTRFP) award, an internal grant funding program of WashU’s Institute of Clinical and Translational Sciences (ICTS). The CTRFP award project promotes the translation of scientific discoveries into improvement in human health.
“I am so thankful for the ICTS award that will fund our pilot studies on the Role of Complement in Hypertensive Disorders of Pregnancy,” says Java. Preeclampsia is a common and potentially devastating pregnancy-related complication that is poorly understood; currently, the only cure for preeclampsia is delivery. Because preeclampsia has a similar phenotype and pathologic findings as aHUS (which is complement-mediated due to genetic variants), Java speculates that over activity of the complement system due to underlying genetic variants may lead to preeclampsia.
Dr. Java and collaborators recently identified genetic variants in complement factor H in preeclampsia (see manuscript here). Their ongoing studies will help to identify additional complement variants that lead to preeclampsia and would provide valuable therapeutic targets for treatment.
Funding for the CTRFP award is provided by the ICTS, The Foundation for Barnes-Jewish Hospital, and our partner institutions: Saint Louis University, the University of Health Sciences and Pharmacy in St. Louis, and the University of Missouri-Columbia.
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